The Sandman and the Duke, Revisited

Back on June 6, I pointed out how similar Mariano Rivera and Justin Duchscherer had been. How have they done since?

Since June 6:

	IP	H	R	HR	BB	SO
Duke	26.2	34	16	5	15	17
Rivera	20.1	16	6	1	3	20

After both starting the year pretty well, the Duke and Rivera have headed in totally opposite directions. Duchscherer's post-June 6th WHIP is double his pre-6/6 WHIP and his K/BB has been halved. Rivera, meanwhile, has decreased his WHIP to an impressive 0.91 and more than tripled his K/BB rate. Simply put: Rivera is much better.

The lessons:

(1) Don't get too excited about small sample sizes.
and
(2) Don't point out how well A's pitchers are doing and invoke the "Jinx."

(Read this for an explanation of why lesson #2 is a joke.)